Knight Rider

When movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert appeared last season on NBC's Saturday Night Live, spurious talk-show host Fernando (a.k.a. comic Billy Crystal) threw a fast one. ''How come,'' he asked, ''no Academy Awards for David Hasselhoff?''''He hasn't made any movies,'' Siskel said.Shrugging off that narrow technicality, Fernando allowed that Hasselhoff was ''simply mah-velous,'' a thought that reflects the feelings of America's bubble-gum set. These days, in that crowd, curly-haired, hunkish Hasselhoff, the Lone Rangerlike star of Knight Rider is the berries.

WHAT: The Orange County Regional History Center is hosting "Out of This World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television." The display is skewed toward sci-fi — generous helpings of Star Trek and Star Wars garb — but there's plenty of fantastical big-screen costuming gems as well. Check out Indiana Jones' jacket and whip, George Clooney's Batman & Robin get-up (pictured) and the pointed hat of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz . A companion display, "Lights!

They call it "Knight Rider." But this Knight Rider is a teal Subaru, and instead of fighting crime, the team of UCF students and faculty that built the car is on a different mission: to send it 175 miles across the desert without a driver. "It's such a funny feeling to be in the car and see the wheel turning," said Don Harper, the University of Central Florida team's adviser and the senior coordinator of computer applications for the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Harper and his team will head to California this week to compete against 42 other teams in the Grand Challenge, hosted by the Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Nominees for the Latin Grammys were announced Wednesday at House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. The awards will be handed out Nov. 13 in a ceremony to be televised by Univision. Mexican Rock en EspaM-qol act CafM-i Tacuba led the nominations, with six; Juanes and Gustavo Santaolalla garnered five nods each; AndrM-is Calamaro, Kany GarcM-ma and Julieta Venegas each received four nominations; and 2008 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year Gloria Estefan, Victor Manuelle, Soraya Moraes, Ximena SariM-qana and Joan Sebastian are among those who earned three nods apiece.

Kal Penn, a k a "Kumar," a k a Kalpen Suresh Modi (Harold's lesser half) will be in Orlando today for a couple of Democratic campaign events. At 9:30 a.m. he'll be at Barack Obama's HQ at 1011 E. Colonial for a voter-registration canvassing rally. At 2 he'll be doing the same at the Business Administration Building at the University of Central Florida. Wonder if he's bringing a bud? -- RM KITT will go for a spin at NASCAR Television promotion goes to new limits today: A version of KITT, the car from NBC's new take on Knight Rider, will be driven at the NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Bristol, Tenn.

The University of Central Florida's driverless car may not be ready for Interstate 4, but it is headed for a California competition where its creators hope to snag a $2 million top prize. The $250,000 car, looking like something Doc Brown might have assembled in his garage in the Back to the Future movies, can back out of a parking space, navigate a roadway and stop at an obstruction -- all without a driver behind the wheel. "It's scary when you let the car drive by itself," said Remo Pillat, a Ph.D.

Knight Rider VIP had a good ride. The scrappy Subaru with the computerized brain defied the odds and steered itself into the finals of a high-stakes robotic-car competition, putting its developers from the University of Central Florida in the national spotlight. But a tragically timed error message cut short the car's trip to glory. Students and researchers on Team UCF could only watch in dismay as their lovingly converted 1996 Subaru Outback drifted off course during the Urban Challenge finals Saturday in California.

Nominees for the Latin Grammys were announced Wednesday at House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. The awards will be handed out Nov. 13 in a ceremony to be televised by Univision. Mexican Rock en EspaM-qol act CafM-i Tacuba led the nominations, with six; Juanes and Gustavo Santaolalla garnered five nods each; AndrM-is Calamaro, Kany GarcM-ma and Julieta Venegas each received four nominations; and 2008 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year Gloria Estefan, Victor Manuelle, Soraya Moraes, Ximena SariM-qana and Joan Sebastian are among those who earned three nods apiece.

Q. Do those sports figures really make a lot of money endorsing products?A. You bet your superjocks they do. The Chicago Bears' ''Refrigerator'' Perry has raked in over $6 million for endorsements -- and his could be small beer beside Boris Becker's. At 20, he's already a millionaire via his deals with such companies as Puma and Coca-Cola. His really big bucks will roll in over the next 10 years.Q. Unless I am mistaken, the actor who played Detective La Guardia on Cagney & Lacey died last year.

WHAT: The Orange County Regional History Center is hosting "Out of This World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television." The display is skewed toward sci-fi — generous helpings of Star Trek and Star Wars garb — but there's plenty of fantastical big-screen costuming gems as well. Check out Indiana Jones' jacket and whip, George Clooney's Batman & Robin get-up (pictured) and the pointed hat of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz . A companion display, "Lights!

Kal Penn, a k a "Kumar," a k a Kalpen Suresh Modi (Harold's lesser half) will be in Orlando today for a couple of Democratic campaign events. At 9:30 a.m. he'll be at Barack Obama's HQ at 1011 E. Colonial for a voter-registration canvassing rally. At 2 he'll be doing the same at the Business Administration Building at the University of Central Florida. Wonder if he's bringing a bud? -- RM KITT will go for a spin at NASCAR Television promotion goes to new limits today: A version of KITT, the car from NBC's new take on Knight Rider, will be driven at the NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Bristol, Tenn.

Knight Rider VIP had a good ride. The scrappy Subaru with the computerized brain defied the odds and steered itself into the finals of a high-stakes robotic-car competition, putting its developers from the University of Central Florida in the national spotlight. But a tragically timed error message cut short the car's trip to glory. Students and researchers on Team UCF could only watch in dismay as their lovingly converted 1996 Subaru Outback drifted off course during the Urban Challenge finals Saturday in California.

Good job. More than 200 of you submitted more than 600 sports-related horse names in honor of this weekend's Breeders' Cup races. Easily the most popular name was "TorreTorreTorre" that was entered 17 times. You know your war movies. Special notation to "Dr. Jim," a man that Vegas fears, for suggesting "Archie Manning" as the name of a stallion that would go directly to stud. Said the doc, "He would be the sire of sires." Let's get to the Top Ten and some honorable mentions. Thank you all for playing.

The University of Central Florida's driverless car may not be ready for Interstate 4, but it is headed for a California competition where its creators hope to snag a $2 million top prize. The $250,000 car, looking like something Doc Brown might have assembled in his garage in the Back to the Future movies, can back out of a parking space, navigate a roadway and stop at an obstruction -- all without a driver behind the wheel. "It's scary when you let the car drive by itself," said Remo Pillat, a Ph.D.

They call it "Knight Rider." But this Knight Rider is a teal Subaru, and instead of fighting crime, the team of UCF students and faculty that built the car is on a different mission: to send it 175 miles across the desert without a driver. "It's such a funny feeling to be in the car and see the wheel turning," said Don Harper, the University of Central Florida team's adviser and the senior coordinator of computer applications for the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Harper and his team will head to California this week to compete against 42 other teams in the Grand Challenge, hosted by the Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Glenn Close will be right at home at this year's Tony Awards. The star of Sunset Boulevard will join Gregory Hines and Nathan Lane as co-hosts of the ceremony, which will be at New York's Minskoff Theater. That's where Sunset Boulevard is playing. Tony nominations will be announced May 8. The awards ceremony will be June 4 on CBS. Close apparently has patched up her differences with Andrew Lloyd Webber, the musical's creator.Role, not heritage, opens Newton's eyes to racismIt took the role of a slave girl in the movie Jefferson in Paris to open Thandie Newton's eyes to racial issues.

Sum show: America has a math problem, and the Children's Television Workshop has come up with a possible solution.Recognizing the increasing importance of mathematical fluency in a techno-shocked world, the company that produces Sesame Street has panhandled $16 million from the U.S. Department of Education, IBM and assorted foundations to bankroll a daily public-TV series aimed at improving the mathematics skills of the nation's 8- to 12-year-olds.The...

Glenn Close will be right at home at this year's Tony Awards. The star of Sunset Boulevard will join Gregory Hines and Nathan Lane as co-hosts of the ceremony, which will be at New York's Minskoff Theater. That's where Sunset Boulevard is playing. Tony nominations will be announced May 8. The awards ceremony will be June 4 on CBS. Close apparently has patched up her differences with Andrew Lloyd Webber, the musical's creator.Role, not heritage, opens Newton's eyes to racismIt took the role of a slave girl in the movie Jefferson in Paris to open Thandie Newton's eyes to racial issues.

The nation's television critics remain in critical condition here as they preview the fall TV season. Here are some notes, quotes and miscellany from week 2 of the three-week session: The script for Challenger, an ABC movie about the shuttle disaster, was rewritten after the wives of crew members Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka and Ron McNair complained about distortions and inaccuracies in the original script.''The Challenger project was fraught with pitfalls,'' said Allen Sabinson, ABC vice president in charge movies and miniseries.

Of all the new shows I screened before coming out here for the TV critics' preview of the fall season, the absolute worst was Sister Kate, an NBC sitcom about a nun and a houseful of orphans so annoying you hope they never get adopted.Naturally, this turns out to be NBC programming czar Brandon Tartikoff's favorite new show of the season.I shouldn't say favorite show because no one really knows what Tartikoff likes, only what he thinks will ''work'' - win big ratings and lay waste to enemy shows in the same time slot.